This invention relates generally to online system and more specifically to determining visibility of groups in an online system to users of the online system.
Online systems enable users to generate and join groups, which allow users with common characteristics to share content with other users who are also members of the group. For example, groups can be created for users who living in a certain geographic location, users who went to the same school, or users who share a common interest such as sports, art, music, etc. A user who is a member of a group can view content that is associated with that group, though viewing content may be restricted for users who are not members of the group.
Conventionally, online systems select content for presentation to a user based on measures of relevance between the user and the content. If a user is a member of a group, the online system may select content associated with a group to present to the user. An online system may determine whether to show group content to a user based on the length of time the user has been a member of the group, the number of other group members with which the user is connected, and properties of the content itself.
A user may have interest in a group of which they are not a member. For example, the user might be interested in joining the group or in content associated with the group. However, in conventional online systems, the group may not be made visible to the user because the user is not a member of the group, so the user who may be interested in the group may not even know the group exists. In addition, if the user does not have many connections to users or groups in the online system, the online system may have difficulty determining content to present to a user. These problems are further complicated by restrictions that prevent users who are not members of the group from viewing content associated with the group.